Legion
Legion was a Dan Dare story set in the year 2177. It was the first of several stories that ran continuously from Prog 28 all the way to Prog 85 which saw Dare lead a mission to the Lost Worlds, a collection of mysterious planets about which little or nothing is known. This story saw Dare hand-pick his crew, and then investigate four separate locations - an asteroid populated by hostile flying man-sized insects, a planet of sand, a planet populated by vampires, and a peaceful trading planet plagued by space pirates. Synopsis Part One Dan Dare was summoned to see the S.A.S.A. High Command. They assigned him a mission to investigate a collection of mysterious planets known as the Lost Worlds. Many ships had been there looking for potential worlds to colonise, but none had been heard from again. Dare agreed but chose to hand-pick his crew himself from Topsoil, a lawless hangout for outlaws and outcasts. There he found Great Bear, a giant Russian, Hitman, a crack-shot whose gun was frozen to his hand, and 'Pilot' Polanski, an ace pilot. He bested each man and told them where he'd be the following morning so they could get their revenge. Once they were all gathered, Dare revealed the mission to them and they all agreed to join himDan Dare: Legion Part One, 2000AD Prog 28. Part Two Dare and his crew located the Pioneer, a lost S.A.S.A. ship, in orbit around an asteroid. While investigating the abandoned craft, they were attacked by man-sized insects that were able to fly in the vacuum of space. Some fancy flying from Pilot shook off the attackers, and Dare used the ship's firepower to destroy the asteroidDan Dare: Legion Part Two, 2000AD Prog 29. Part Three Dare and his crew investigated a planet made of sand where a colony ship had disappeared. Dare took Bear and a small team down to the surface to investigate. They discovered that the entire planet was a single hostile silicon-based life-form. They fought off the attack by rupturing their own water tanks, before being rescued by Pilot in a second scout shipDan Dare: Legion Part Three, 2000AD Prog 30. Part Four Dare and his crew encountered a group of heart-shaped spacecraft. They accompanied the ships to their home planet which was apparently populated by humans who dressed and acted like ancient Romans. The population appeared unarmed so Dare and his men surrendered all their weapons. However, during a feast, Dare discovered two of his men had been murdered and that the locals were armed with vampiric fangsDan Dare: Legion Part Four, 2000AD Prog 31. Part Five Dare laced the wine with rocket fuel to startle his men to action, then got Bear to throw him up to the cage above them where their weapons were being held. Once armed, they fought their way back to the landing craft and took off. They then hid close by until the vampires' space fleet took off in pursuit, and ambushed them, destroying them allDan Dare: Legion Part Five, 2000AD Prog 32. Part Six Dare's crew received a distress call from Phoenixan freighter under attack by space pirates. By the time Dare's ship got there, the freighter's crew had all been butchered and the pirates escaped. They returned the bodies to the freighter's home planet where they learned of the pirates. Posing as a freighter themselves, the lured the pirates into a trap. Dare defeated the pirates' leader, Morgoth the One-Eyed, while Dare's crew took care of the rest. The traders then provided them with maps and charts for the rest of the Lost WorldsDan Dare: Legion Part Six, 2000AD Prog 33. Characters *Dan Dare *Great Bear *Hitman *'Pilot' Polanski *Muller *Morales *Luigi Romero *Valentino *Morgoth, the One-Eyed Locations *Quadrant Four **The Lost Worlds ***Phoenix *Solar System **Earth ***Topsoil ****Depart-Pad ****Moon Street Technology *Magno-grapple Vehicles *Space Fortress *Pioneer *Mayflower 10 *Eagle Scout craft *Venus (freighter) Weapons *Astro-Axe *Laser-sword Organisations *S.A.S.A. References Category:Dan Dare stories